Cemetery Visit

We went to the Riddle Cemetery where my Dad is buried and visited his grave. It was growing some moss in some of the letters so Pappa, Rett, and the boys cleaned up the headstone a little bit. It was nice to visit. And Drake had been missing Thunder (the little runt of Stormy's litter that didn't make it), so he asked Grandpa Sam to look out for him. Although, he was bright enough to know that he could have asked that anywhere. The boys each had a little balloon to leave there. It was nice to visit and good to have a little talk with the boys about life after death and our beliefs about being together again after this life. I am so grateful for that belief. I don't know how I would have gotten through my life without my Dad in it if I didn't have faith that I would be able to see him again some day. I am so grateful for the example he was in my life and for all that he taught me. And some day, I know that Rett, Crew, Drake, and Whit will be able to meet Grandpa Sam and I know they will love him just as much as I do.

The lumber yard near the cemetery he's buried at reminds me of him, since he was a logger and a truck driver.

This is the company, Ireland Brothers, my dad was driving for when he died. The blue and yellow trucks reminded me of him. I did see some trucks loaded with logs, which I really wanted a picture of, but didn't have my camera ready when we passed them, so I thought this one would have to do.

Wild Life Safari

While in Oregon, my parents took us to wild life safari twice. The boys loved it. It was pretty fun. A little run down and small compared to what I remembered as a kid. But not sure if that's just because I'm big now. Anyway, they loved getting to feed the animals out of the car, to hold the birds, and go on the train ride. Thanks Grandma & Grandpa for taking us! We loved it!

National Amateur Field Championship

The NARC has a cocktail party the night before it starts. We convinced Grandpa and Grandma to babysit so we could go. It was a fun evening and I'm glad we went. We got some great advice and met a lot of people who have been in the game for a very long time. 

These are some of the pictures I snagged of Rett in line to run. I couldn't get many great pictures of him actually running the tests, but there are a few that I managed to get. 

Here are the boys playing the waiting game. They did really well some days at waiting quietly and not so well other days!

One night in the trailer when everyone was supposed to be sleeping, this is what we found. Whit and Zink were just playing with each other! It was so cute!

Drake wanted this picture. If you look closely at the middle transmission structure, you may see, as Drake did, something resembling Batman!

Rett and Zink made it to the 5th series. There were 104 of the best dogs in the nation in this trial. And we are so proud of them both for all their hard work and effort to qualify, and then to make it so far during the trial. Both Rett and Zink are young, and have a very bright future ahead of them. We are geared up and ready to start training to qualify for the 2015 NARC which will be held in Montana next year!